Contents

Synopsis

The opening page depicts Tomoko standing on a road warming her hands with her breath with the caption: "This year's about to end too."

Tomoko snuggles with her new toy under the kotatsu proclaiming "this is heaven!" while the television announces the coldest day of the year. She chortles to herself at scenes of people commuting to work until mother calls her to clean the bathroom. As Tomoko cleans, she grumbles to herself. When she finishes, her mother then asks her to clean the windows. When Tomoko suggests that her brother brother do it, her mother angrily reminds her that he did all of the cleaning the year before when Tomoko had to study for an exam. This year, Tomoki has an exam. When Tomoko protests, her mother interrupts to remind her that Tomoki does a lot of chores, including making his own lunch and cleaning his room, without needing to be asked, unlike her, "the older sister." Tomoko reacts badly to this. She runs to her brother's room and denounces him for his initiative which makes her look bad. Her mother witnesses this and slaps her.

Sitting somewhat ashamed in her room, Tomoko recalls her mother telling her she will not ask for her to help anymore, but she "could at least" sort out her things in the storeroom. A tearful Tomoko determines to finish quickly and return to the kotatsu. As usual, Tomoko inwardly blames Tomoki for being more responsible. As she sorts through things, she finds a box marked "Memories of Summer." In it, she finds the discarded shells of cicada. She initially finds them gross but then recalls as a child telling her brother they could sell them for "100 yen a piece!" She discards these and other thing, then finds a notebook Tomoki kept during earlier school days. In it, Tomoki writes about how much he loves his older sister. Wordlessly Tomoko picks up the cicadas.

Having successfully returned to the kotatsu, Tomoko eventually reemerges and goes outside with her now quite warm smaller plush pillow. She tosses it into the snow and watches it sink a bit. Retrieving it, Tomoko notes how cold it is as she looks at her brother's window.

She returns to her brother’s room. As he protests against another interruption, she tosses her warm big purple toy at him, saying that she is lending it to him.

Tomoki notices a cicada shell stuck to the back of the toy and expresses that it is gross.

Cultural References

NEET--"Not in Education, Employment, or Training": a term from Britain that came to Japan to refer unemployed youth. Tomoko uses this term frequently.

Memorial Moments

While she retreats back to her defense mechanism of blaming others, Tomoko feels a bit of guilt. The reminder that he loved her and looked up to her as an older sister pushes her to do something nice even if he does not understand it.

Quotes

"You're bothering me, so please get out!" – Tomoki

“Even though you're my younger brother, you're making a fool out of me!!” – Tomoko